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It was my turn for date night.
We'd driven out of town in his beaten up pickup truck with pillows and blankets in the back into the middle of nowhere. He didn't grumble, didn't complain, I knew he loved breaking his parent's strict rules of sleeping patterns and curfews.
We got to the top of the hill which overlooked our sleeping city, away from the road we had driven on so that nobody could bother us.
I clambered out of the passenger seat into the back of the truck and placed the blanket on the bottom of the rusty truck and the pillows along the back, and the two of us climbed into the back to watch the stars and lights of the city below us.
we stayed like that for hours until midnight, and exactly 00:00 the city lights went out.
We were plunged into darkness.
I heard distant screams and crunches coming from the streets as cars collided with buildings and each other. But then all noise was cut off in a second.
I sat bolt upright, trying to see through the thick concrete darkness, trying to see the houses and roads.
But there was nothing.
He leapt into action, jumping over the side of the truck and into the driver's seat, and a few seconds later I joined him. We sped back onto the main road and raced down the hill to find our families. but by the time we had got to the edge of town, it was too late.
All life had abandoned.
Smoke drifted from a car that had hit a low brick wall, the driver's seat empty. A dog collar and leash lay on the pavement, a smashed phone that had been dropped lay next to it.
"Did everyone just... Vanish?" he whispered, nudging the phone gently with his foot. we carried on walking down the barren streets, stumbling over debris and discarded objects that had until half an hour ago, belonged to someone.
We reached the city centre at 1:20 am, myself on foot, he was driving slowly behind me. The moonlight shone eerily over the street, reflecting off the litter the wind was making dance on the road. suddenly the engine of the truck cut out. I spun around, about to scream, when he climbed out the driver's seat, keys in hand. I turned and I made my way to the city hall looming over me. The stone steps seemed to go on forever as I climbed up them.
Oak double doors sat in front of us, and a faint popping could be heard from behind them, no kind of rhythm to it. With a deep breath, I kicked them down-
And was instantly thrown back down the stairs by hot, blazing fury.
The world around us was instantly submerged in an orange light that licked its way up the front of the city hall. But this fire was different. it seemed... alive. It curled its way around the rooftops, rained onto the pavements and deafened us with its roaring.
then it froze. it didn't disappear, it stayed exactly where it was, but stopped moving. But not quite.
I scrambled up, grabbed his arm and we stood in the middle of the road and watched. The flames moved slowly, like water, and it directed itself into the road, a few metres in front of us. it grew and grew into an enormous monster before our eyes.
"Get back to the car" he whispered, but I couldn't move, I was stuck watching this mesmerising creature tower into the starry sky.
"I said get back to the car!" he pulled me backwards, towards the truck. and that's when it roared.
the noise reverberated off the walls, off the ground, through me, and inside my own head. I turned and sprinted to the car, screaming to go. the car jumped into life and we spun away from the creature.
